Dec. 17, 2008
Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 08-332
NASA ADMINISTRATOR HAILS AGREEMENT WITH AD ASTRA
WASHINGTON -- NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas, have
signed a Space Act Agreement that could lead to the testing of a new
plasma-based space propulsion technology on the International Space
Station. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR)
engine initially was studied by NASA and is being commercially
developed by Ad Astra.
This is the first such agreement for a payload on the station’s
exterior and represents an expansion of NASA’s plans to operate the
U.S. portion of the space station as a national laboratory. This
effort follows the success achieved by the agency last year in
reaching multiple agreements to utilize internal station sites for
this endeavor.
"Ad Astra's Space Act Agreement with NASA offers an example of just
the kind of research and technology development that we should be
doing on the International Space Station, can do there, and cannot
easily do anywhere else," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.
"Dr. Chang-Diaz's VASIMR engine concept has long held great
theoretical promise for future high-efficiency space propulsion. With
this agreement, we are taking the first steps down the road to its
practical realization. I am grateful to the teams on both sides who
have worked to develop a plan that yields a near-term step forward
for both Ad Astra and NASA on this exciting prospect."
NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Operations William
Gerstenmaier and Ad Astra's President and Chief Executive Officer
Franklin Chang Diaz signed the agreement on Dec. 8. The agreement is
structured in a series of "gates," designed to allow the parties to
assess milestones on an incremental basis while proceeding to flight.
Upon the achievement of these milestones, NASA and Ad Astra envision
that VASIMR will be launched to the station and be tested, for the
first time, in the vacuum of space.
The VASIMR project will pave the way in demonstrating a new class of
larger, more complex science and technology payloads to be installed
on the station's exterior. Smaller projects already have been started
for installation inside the station as part of the effort to use the
U.S. portion of the station as a national laboratory. NASA hopes the
agreement with Ad Astra will encourage other entities, governmental
and commercial, to pursue similar projects and to facilitate the
success of those projects by providing a model for implementation.
Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and veteran of seven space shuttle
flights is a plasma physicist. In 2001, the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded him the Wyld Propulsion Award
for his 21 years of research on the VASIMR engine.
For more information on the space station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-